


Starving (Together)

by yogkabob



Category: MindCrack RPF
Genre: M/M, Mental Illness, Panic Attacks, based off of their don't starve series, can be platonic, doesn't exactly need to be seen as romantic, i like to take happy LP's and make them sad, set in the Don't Starve world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 16:21:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3698927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yogkabob/pseuds/yogkabob
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doc is determined to make up for what they lack and ends up making the biggest mistake of his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starving (Together)

Calm nights were few and far between. Shadows were constantly tiptoeing around the edge of their fire’s light. Spiders’ cries kept them from sleeping on any sparse bedding for any longer than a few minutes. Sometimes Doc would like to play with death and step into darkness, just to see how long it would take for the demons to come for him. He didn’t do much of that anymore; his mind was tired and the monsters knew that, and he learned the hard way that even the most stubborn people could be sick.

Instead, he sat on the one log that wasn’t being burned for fuel and watched. In the beginning, things were good. Despite being dropped into a lacking area, they had found fresh carrots and plump berries to eat, and flint and gold to experiment with. But then the wolves came— so did the darkness— and even the tastiest food eventually rotted in their hands. They had tried to keep moving, take what they can then leave their destruction behind. Soon, though, their campfire became a permanent pit in the ground and their tired legs begged for rest. Doc knew he probably wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for Etho; the other man stopping him to gingerly place a handful of warm food into his grasp with nothing but concern in his eyes was what kept him going.

Etho was currently stretched out along the length of the log, his head in Doc’s lap. On Doc’s other side, sitting on the ground, was the bag that he kept filing through to keep himself busy. Maybe if he keep re-checking, he’d find something, anything to eat. He was starving.  _Etho_  was starving. Their farm was fertilized but growing slow, and monster meat was no longer sustaining them the way it should. (Now it was just making them sick and doing nothing to replenish their energy.) He finally looked away, back to the man in his lap, and a tired smile came to him for the first time in what felt like weeks. Etho had dozed off, his garland halfway off his head and tangled in his hair. His hands were folded neatly at his midsection but his legs were splayed sloppily off the end of the impromptu seat. Above him floated three transparent bubbles— hunger, mental health, and physical health. The same went for Doc, but he couldn’t see it, only others. He didn’t need to because he could feel it himself. (His physical health was fine; his mental health hadn’t gone up for a long time.) Etho wasn’t in the worst shape; his mental health was dipping but nothing to panic about. His physical health was a little less than half, which was scary. He hadn’t recovered completely since the last wolf visit. But what really got Doc nervous was his hunger. It was a thin sliver of 10, and was falling every day they went without food.

Before he knew what he was doing, the soft but empty backpack had been placed below Etho’s head in replacement for his thigh. The sleeping man stirred, and his eyes cracked open for a moment, but as soon as his vision focused on Doc’s face he drifted back into slumber. Doc grabbed the eye bone from the ground and waved it slightly in one hand while lighting the end of a half-burnt torch in the other. Chester bounded up to his feet, his tongue lolling out of his mouth in excitement. His footsteps were surprisingly heavy for such a small fellow but they didn’t quite mask the crackling of the fire.

“Come on, little guy. We are going to look for food.”

Chester clearly didn’t understand a word he said but happily panted anyways. Doc turned to walk, but paused. The same driving force behind his quest for food kept him from leaving. He hesitated, glanced at Chester, then silently stepped back to Etho. He caringly smoothed down Etho’s silvery hair and gently removed his garland so it wouldn’t be crushed in the night. The petals were wilting but still soft, he noted. However, there was no more time to waste because night was running out and Etho would be awake soon. He kissed Etho’s forehead, hoping his stubble didn’t scratch enough to bother him, and set off in a light jog in the opposite direction.

He held his torch high above his head in hopes of casting enough light to spot any potential meals, but most of what he saw consisted of glowing eyes and shadows scurrying to escape the light. Doc made sure to keep Etho’s floating stats in his view. They got smaller and smaller, and he knew to turn back when it disappeared, but that hadn’t happened yet. Chester was the only sound apart from himself; everything else was asleep or dead. His eyes stuck to the ground until he finally found a small patch of carrots.

“ _Ooohh_ baby,” he chuckled to himself. He kneeled down and began to pry them from the earth eagerly. They were small but many, and he couldn’t help himself but nibble on the end of one while he looked around for more. It was sweet and fresh, and he smiled widely in satisfaction. Eight carrots and a handful of berries were placed in Chester’s compartment before he stood back up and brushed off his pants. His torch was dying but still emitted a nice amount of glow. Etho’s stats showed him were home was, and Doc nearly had a skip in his step by the time he was close enough to read them. His smile remained the whole way, but his satisfaction was suddenly dropped ice cold when he heard an all too familiar roar. It rumbled loudly and violently like thunder, and it came from home’s direction.  _Etho’s direction_. His steps had slowed to a stunned stop and he felt ice in his veins, but nothing compared to what he felt when he saw Etho’s health ticking down in bursts. His torch tumbled to the ground, smoldering, and Doc was running, running with every ounce of energy he had left. He hadn’t brought a weapon, damn it, but that didn’t matter as long as he just fucking got there. The bubbles were getting bigger and the light of the fire was slowly getting brighter. 

“Etho!” Doc shouted. He’d never heard Etho scream before. He’d heard him yell, rage, shout, and even cry, but he’d never witnessed Etho scream before that night. It was a terrible sound that mingled with the barking and chomping of the wolves. He looked up from his focus on the light and realized he couldn’t see Etho’s stats anymore. They were no longer bobbing in his vision and instead what he reached was a pile of materials that hadn’t been there before. Flower petals, grass, flint… A loud, booming voice rattled through his head and the bold words assaulted his view of the world, startling him enough to lurch forward. 

_Etho was killed by a Hound._

His vision began to tunnel and his chest tightened. He suddenly realized that he couldn’t get anymore air in and none was coming out. His ears were full of static and he groped pathetically at the pile of petals in front of him with numbing fingers because they were his only link to reality. It had happened before– both the breakdown and the death– but never like this. Never this violent. The beasts seemed satisfied with the night’s blood and had returned to terrorizing something else, leaving Doc to himself. Minutes passed, several agonizingly quiet minutes. The voice spoke again, clearly, into the pale light of dawn and the dying fire.

_Docm77 died from heartbreak._

**Author's Note:**

> (again, I do NOT write or ship the real people, and this is based off of their in-game characters/MC skins!) if this is too sad, imagine them holding hands as ghosts while they wait for the world to reset.


End file.
